Son of woman killed in 1997 gas station robbery asks Alabama to spare assailant set to be executed

The son of a woman shot and killed execution-style during a gas station holdup nearly three decades ago is asking Alabama officials to spare the life of the death row inmate set to be executed in two days.

Margaret Parrish Berry, a 33-year-old mother of two, was found dead face-down behind the checkout counter at a gas station in Alabama’s Etowah County on March 28, 1997. She was working there as a solo store clerk, and there were no witnesses to the grisly murder.

The thief holding up the gas station took $250 from a nearby cookie jar where the store’s money was stashed.

Geoffrey Todd West, who was 21-years-old at the time, was eventually arrested in connection with the robbery and convicted of capital murder.

He was sentenced to death in 1999, though the presiding judge noted the difficulty in handing down the hefty sentence to such a young man.

West never denied that he killed Margaret and is still learning to live with the grief. He said that he and his girlfriend at the time were pressed for cash and went to the gas station, where he used to work, to rob it.

Now 50 years old, West can’t fathom what type of desperation would push his younger self to take someone’s life.

“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t regret it and wish that I could take that back,” West said.

“I wish I had the opportunity just to swap places and let it be me and not her.”

Now, Will Berry, Margaret’s son, is fighting for the killer’s salvation.

“I forgive this guy, and I don’t want him to die. I don’t want the state to take revenge in my name or my family’s name for my mother,” Will said.

Will was just 11 years old when his mother was murdered, and said that the sudden loss derailed his life. He praised his wife, Courtney, and his church community for helping him through the unimaginable loss, and the trauma that came with it.

He also carries with him the lessons imparted by his mother, including the importance of forgiveness even during the darkest hour.

“There shouldn’t be any more death. There should be healing and moving forward,” he said.

He’s already pleaded with Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey to stop the execution, but she refused to budge.

Will penned a letter to Ivey and explained how continuing the cycle of death would crush him and noted that it “would not bring [his] mother back.”

Ivey, who has previously commuted a death sentence in a case where the prisoner’s guilt came into question, asserted that it was her duty to carry out Alabama law, which “imposes a death sentence for the most egregious form of murder.”

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall doubled down on the governor’s refusal. His office released a statement saying that West has “been on death row for twenty-six years, and his death sentence is due.”

With West scheduled to die by nitrogen hypoxia on Thursday, he just wants other people who may be in the same situation he was as a young man to know that there is always an alternative.

“If you don’t have nowhere else to go, go to church, find a priest, and just tell them everything. But just don’t do what I did, man. You’ve got an option, even if you don’t feel like you’ve got an option,” West said.

The prison system denied Berry and West’s request to meet in person, citing security regulations.

With Post wires